Understanding eSports Research
As with all sports we play in DFS, research is a vital part of constructing lineups for eSports. Many of the concepts are the same as in traditional sports, but can be more difficult to digest when first coming into contact with DFeS. We’re still seeking most of the same things; opportunity, upside, and floor being a few of the most common. All of these are present in DFeS to varying degrees, just as they are in other sports. This article will walk you through how to understand what our eSports Research page offers and how to use it to build better lineups.
What’s Offered?
The eSports section of the RotoGrinders Research Tools can be found here. Each section within has several statistics, all coming together to create what is a rather comprehensive selection of League of Legends information to be applied to DFS. From base seasonal statistics, to player by player projections for upcoming matchups, nearly everything you could ever want is here. Whether you are a seasoned eSports veteran, or a Grinder looking to delve into the new thing on the block, you will find useful information on this page. Below you will find a breakdown of each of the four offered categories, each of which is offered for both North America and Europe, and what you can use from each to create winning lineups when playing DraftKings or AlphaDraft DFeS. Projections below are focused on DraftKings, but most everything below can be applied to AlphaDraft as well.
Player Stats
This page is each and every player who has played at least one game during the current League Championship Series season and their DFS relevant statistics. The numbers may appear foreign to an eSports novice, but aren’t difficult to translate into a DFS understanding. There are several important statistics to take note of for individual players. Of course, players who move to the top when the table is sorted by kills appear are surely strong fantasy options, but are also generally the expensive carry players. We have to look at much more than that when creating strong lineups.
The most important statistic on this page is KP%, which is a players average Kill Participation. This is how often a player is involved in one of his teams successful kills, either by picking up the kill himself, or participating in a matter that gains him an assist. The higher the KP, the more that player’s team relies on him to score kills, and thus create fantasy points. If you could only use one statistic to create lineups, this would be it. Secondarily, DPM, PTD, and TG%(Team gold share) are all good ways to measure how important a player is to a team. We want players who make fantasy points happen, and players who are fed gold by their team are going to be more likely to rack up fantasy points. Players who have high gold shares, or higher damage totals than their teammates, are the true carries for their team, even if things like total kills don’t always reflect it.
Team Stats
This is both a good place to start your research to find teams to target, as well as where you’ll find projections for the TEAM slot on DraftKings. Use statistics like Dragons/win to see what to expect out of a team in good matchups. If a team has low Dragons or Barons even in wins, it’s a decent indication that they may win too easily to obtain the points you would like out of their TEAM slot. FW%, or how often a team gets the under-30 minute bonus on DK, suggests how aggressive a team is in trying to close games out before the late game arrives. The fantasy implications of that can mean any number of things, but generally we do prefer longer games, when we can project them. Aside from those things, this is the most basic of the research pages and can be referred to simply see how good or bad a team is on the surface through record and projection.
Projections and Fantasy Stats
This page is fairly straightforward in that it displays projections for a players upcoming game or series, as well as his fantasy averages for the current season. On the right-handside of the table, each number listed is what the players projection is depending on the type of series that he will be playing. There’s several different formats that take place over the course of a full season, so it will be important to note what the player you are choosing is in store for.
The stat here that may be new to some is the section of s at the beginning of the table. These numbers measure each players fantasy points within his team, and how often he finishes in each place. So, if a player finished with the 3rd highest fantasy points on his team in half of his teams games, he would have a 50 under the 3 column. Often, supports will have a 0% under the 1, as they rarely finish with the highest fantasy points on their team. This is a more fantasy oriented way of measuring a players overall importance to his team. Similar to the statistics discussed above, players who have higher %s for 1st or 2nd on their team are generally going to be your best fantasy options.
The rest of the table displays averages. The one I would pay the most attention do is actually DKP/L, or DraftKings Points per loss. This is a strong way to find value players, who even when you believe their team will lose, still find a way to reach value. Search for players with high DKP/L numbers that come cheaply on DFS sites.
Defense vs. Position
Oh, DvP. If you’ve been around DFS for long you know about DvP. It’s often argued as great for one sport, poor for another and nobody seems quite sure. For LoL eSports, I think it’s quite useful. It’s not uncommon for a team to struggle against specific things during a gamestate that Riot Games offers up, or to simply have no answer to certain Champions which fulfill certain roles. Some teams struggle mightily against aggressive junglers and that type of thing will show on this page.
Each column displays how well, or poorly, a team does against a given position. From left to right, the overall averages a team has against a position, followed by in wins and in losses. These are displayed in percents versus the rest of the league, so a team who has a W:J of .88, they perform 12% better than average against the jungler position in games that they win. Similarly, if a team has a L:T of 1.10, they perform 10% worse than average against enemy top laners when they lose.
Right off the bat, what’s obvious is that we want to use this page after having an idea of who we believe will win a game. From there, we decide whether taking players against that team is our move. If we’re seeking value, and a team has a worse than average W:T, we could reasonably punt with the enemy teams top laner, even though we think it is likely that his team will be defeated. If we think two teams are somewhat evenly matched, it would be reasonable to use the O:T, which is the teams overall average against a position. All in all, use this page particularly when you can find outliers, as in a team who performs particularly poorly against a position that will help you round out your lineup.